The Cubs have lost five of their last seven games, falling to 14-11 but maintaining their first-place hold on the National League Central.

"I don't think it's something like, 'Oh, my goodness, we have some real issues here,'" Eric Karros said. "We're still in first place, and that's the way we look at it."

After the loss the Cubs headed to San Francisco, where Baker returns to face the team he managed for 10 years and led to the 2002 World Series. Baker conceded it would be difficult to view this as just an ordinary trip.

"No. 1, people aren't going to let you," he said. "It's not going to be average. No. 2, that's my home and was my home the last 15 years. You don't just go back home and feel nothing.

"Still, you have to do what you're capable of doing and hope [the] team is not distracted."

Carlos Zambrano (3-2) was distracted by the strike zone of plate umpire Larry Vanover on Sunday, and he paid for it despite a strong outing. He admitted that he had a hard time adjusting to Vanover's calls and that it got him off his game.

"I have to remember next year, or the next five or six years, to be in control of that situation," Zambrano said.

Two walks in the fourth inning came around to score on Preston Wilson's double and Charles Johnson's two-run double, giving the Rockies a 3-2 lead.

Karros' first home run as a Cub tied it 3-3 in the sixth before the Rockies pushed across a run in the seventh.

With runners on second and third and two outs, Jay Payton hit a chopper to the left of second baseman Mark Grudzielanek.

Though Grudzielanek dove and knocked the ball down, he couldn't get a grip on it as Payton reached and Greg Norton scored the go-ahead run.

"Grudzielanek made a heck of a play," Baker said. "It would've been a totally different ballgame. Still we felt like we were in good shape, down by one run."

But Johnson added a two-run homer with two outs in the eighth off Kyle Farnsworth.

"We've played good ball," Baker said. "They just beat us. It doesn't make it any easier. But our offense wasn't clicking the last two games. We had some guys who aren't swinging like they'd ordinarily swing. Hopefully when we get to San Francisco, things will be different."

The Seattle CEO who raised salaries for all of his employees to a minimum of $70,000 a year, drawing accusations of socialism, now says he has fallen on hard times, the Washington Times reported Saturday.

It's a battle that goes all the way back to their college days at the University of Miami — defensive end Olivier Vernon vs. left tackle Jason Fox. Now that matchup is taking place at the NFL level with the Dolphins, and there's much more at stake.